Why?

We have finally entered the "Why?" phase.  The fact that this didn't happen until Munchkin could talk in full sentences hasn't made it any less frustrating.  My friend's little boy is a month older than Munchkin and she has tended to do things a month or so after him, but not on this occasion.  I was vaguely worried that she was developmentally slow, but secretly pleased I didn't have to deal with it.

I am currently dealing with around seven "whys" a day, excluding the supplementary ones.  I wouldn't mind but I find them so difficult to answer.  The answers I give are often met with a "why?".  We still haven't established why there are big and small roads, and why weeds are so called.

We were driving home from swimming yesterday when Munchkin asked me why we had to drive round the roundabout.  I explained at great length that roundabouts allowed cars to drive onto different roads more easily, otherwise we would never be able to get from the small roads (single carriageways) onto the big roads (dual carriageways).  As a result of this, she asked me why there were big roads and small roads.  I told her that big roads were for getting from one town to another and people usually lived on small roads, but I'm not convinced she was satisfied with that answer.

Image courtesy of iamharin freedigitalphotos.net

I was doing some weeding yesterday, when she asked me what I was doing.  I explained that I was pulling up weeds like Grandpa Pig in Peppa Pig.  This is going to be easy, I thought, I just say what Grandpa Pig did.  Grandpa Pig said that weeds were naughty plants that grew where they weren't meant to.  The next thing I know, I've been asked why Grandpa doesn't like weeds, and why he says "weeds".  After trying to explain that they were called weeds because that was their name, I gave up.  Every time I tried to use a comparison, it resulted in another question.

You would think that as a Business Analyst, who spends my working days asking, "Why", "What", When" and "How", I would welcome this but it's making me use my brain more at home than I do at work.  I'm used to adapting my communication style for the business area or IT but now I'm having to think like a toddler. WHY?

Little Monsters Bash

On Saturday, we went to Little Monsters Bash, at Stanmer Park in Brighton.  This was a festival for young children, arranged in aid of Tree of Hope - a charity that helps sick children.  Someone sent me details a while ago on Facebook but it didn't sound that exciting until I checked out the the line up.  The headline acts were Heaven for the under tens. 

Munchkin got to meet Peppa and George but she wasn't expecting them to be six feet tall, and was a little scared!  Captain Barnacles and Quasii from The Octonauts were also there, as was Yo Jo Jo (or whatever his name is) from WayBaloo.

George doing a meet and greeet

There were some excellent shows on the main stage - most of which repeated several times, meaning that we had a chance to see what was on elsewhere.  Alex Winters from CBeebies was the compere.  I think it's perhaps the only time he's been able to give a big up to shows from Nick Jr without falling foul of his employer. I really enjoyed Katy Ashworth's band.  I like a bit of live music and they were talented and entertaining.  Munchkin enjoyed watching Go Go Go... or the Go Go People as she prefers to call them.  We didn't bother with all the main acts, since we thought Dick and Dom, and the times table rapper amongst others, were too grown up for her. 

Katy and her band on the main stage

There was much more going on than I have room to mention here.  The only marquee that we  managed to get to was the Story Tent.  The Crafts Tent looked good, as did some of the other activities including Sing and Sign, and a kiddies' disco.  There were various stalls dotted around, the most popular of which sold animal shaped helium balloons. In addition to all the shows and stalls, there were kiddies' favourites such as a bouncy castle and face painting; Munchkin was a happy, busy girl. 

Little Monsters Bash wasn't cheap, it was around £15 a person, even with a Groupon discount.  However, you got a lot for your money.  I believe parking was an additional £5, but we didn't need to pay this.  2014 was  the festival's first year and I hope it continues for many more.  My only criticisms would be some minor logistical ones: although there were plenty of toilets there wasn't enough toilet paper, and there weren't enough children's options on the catering vans.  Given that picnics weren't allowed, an outlet selling sandwiches would probably have gone down well.  I'm also undecided on the merits of a mobile petting zoo.  Do meerkats like spending significant amounts of time in transit, and setting up a temporary home away from their normal territory?

Munchkin's social life seems to be continuing apace over the summer holidays so I'll no doubt be writing more blogs on activities.  It makes a change from potty training, which incidentally is completely done.  She doesn't even wear nappies at night now.  I just need to find a buyer for those expensive cloth training pants.

Beds, Water and Monster Munch

Today, Munchkin has mostly been cute.  Her day didn't get off to the best start as she spilt water all over her bed.  When I told her we were going to see her Pops, she said she didn't want to.  She changed her mind when I told her she could take lots of toys, and appeared to ask if she could take her, "Monster Munch" with her.  To my knowledge, Munchkin has never eaten a Monster Munch and we definitely haven't had any in the house since she was born.  I eventually realised that was saying, "instruments", so we packed her toy guitar.

My step-dad -her Pops- is currently incapacitated, so we went to his home in Haywards Heath to keep him company.  He's snapped his Achilles tendon, or Hercules tendon as he prefers to call it!  Munchkin maintained that she didn't want to talk to Pops for most of the journey.  Thankfully she changed her mind but every other person we met in Haywards Heath was subjected to the silent treatment.

Since Pops had another visitor for a couple of hours, we decided to leave them to it for a while and visited Victoria Park.  Not having been to the park for many years, I'd forgotten it had a paddling pool.  There was no way Munchkin was going to stay out of it, so I let her go in in her T-shirt and knickers.  Other than the paddling pool, which I think is technically a splash pad, the playground has a variety of equipment including two slide/climbing frame combo's, a sit-on roundabout, rockers and a selection of swings.  Munchkin loved the roundabout and the minature swing.  In addition to regular swings, Victoria Park has a tiny "big girl swing" which is perfect for toddlers who don't want to be pushed on baby swings.

Munchkin managed to drench her T-shirt in the paddling pool so I took advantage of the fact the park is next to the town centre to buy her a new top.  Luckily it was a hot day, as I was marching around town with a bare-chested toddler.  I bought her a little floral number in JoJo Maman Bebe's sale.  She was so taken by it that she didn't want to take it off tonight and is excited that I've told her she can wear it again tomorrow.

Once she was fully clothed, we returned to the park for an ice cream in Tory's Cafe.  This is a new addition since my days as a Haywards Heath resident.  There's a pleasant outside seating area surrounded by gardens.  In fact, the whole park is more landscaped than I remember.  There is also a skate park for the older ones.  Perhaps skate park is a misnomer, since it was full of scooters and BMX bikes.

It's likely we'll be back, with a towel and a swimsuit next time.  Munchkin's day went pretty well.  At bedtime, she said, "Mummy I want to keep you."
"Where do you want to keep me?" I asked.
"In my bed," came the reply.

Resolutions

Yet again, I haven't found much time for writing.  I've just had another birthday so have decided to make some resolutions for my 42nd year.  So far I've got to:

1. Write more
2. Worry less
3. Read more
4. Go to bed earlier
5. Clear out all of our junk

Munchkin is pretty much potty trained.  Until today, she hadn't had an accident for about two weeks.  She's got a tooth coming through and was too busy screaming at me to notice she was desperate for the toilet.  Night times are going really well.  She's said that she wants to wear Peppa Pig pants to bed and I've told her she can if she can show me that she can keep her pull-ups dry.  She's woken up dry every morning since I said that to her last week.

Here's a brief run-down on what we've done since I last blogged, if I can keep to my resolution, I might go back and blog on some of these in more detail:

• Family holiday in North Devon with Sweetpea & Co.  This went really well and we managed to find lots of activities suitable for toddlers, parents and grandparents.  The weather was also kind to us.
• Party at David Lloyd for Munchkin's twin friends' third birthday.  This was really well done.  It was held in the David Lloyd creche, and everything was laid on by the club.  The party was led by one of the creche staff and food was supplied by the club's restaurant.  It was interesting to learn that you don't have to be a member to book a party there.  I would love to join David Lloyd, but don't think I can afford it!
• Visit to Washbrooks Farm.  This was a very good suggestion for a meet-up by our childless friends.  Munchkin got to see animals, ride on a tractor, play outside on a wide selection of equipment including a brand new bouncing pillow, and go to indoor softplay.

Phew, I've blogged... Must try not to leave it so long next time.

To my mother

I've spent a lot of time thinking about my own mother just recently.  The mother of someone I'm close to has just discovered she's seriously ill so is attempting to spend as much time with her grandchildren as possible.  My mum never had that opportunity, her only grandchild was born six years after her death.  I'm really missing her at the moment, and feel guilty that my grief may be detracting from my friend's concerns about his mother.

Munchkin and I were looking at some old photos today, one of my mum when she was a child and two of my mum and me when I was about the age Munchkin is now.  She quickly realised who the little girls were, and that the woman who looked like me was actually Granny.  I've concluded that Munchkin looks like me, but with Granny's hair and Daddy's eyes.  Munchkin understood the concept that I was once a little girl like her, a lot more readily than when I tried to explain why Granny wasn't at Pops' house when she was in lots of photos with him.  She spent five minutes upstairs looking for Granny that day.  I ended up telling her Granny was in Heaven, and hoped it didn't come back to haunt me when we went on holiday to Devon!

Image courtesy of Marin / Freedigitalphotos.net

My mother taught me a lot about parenting, sometimes without realising it.  Here is a brief selection:

1. The only person who could convincingly tell me everything would be all right, no matter how dire it seemed, was my mum.  I think this should be in the Mother's Job Description.  I'm sure I once read a Caitlin Moran column where she said this was the biggest lie a mother ever tells.  Sorry Ms Moran, I disagree.  It's all about perception.  If you believe everything will be all right -I'm starting to sound like Bob Marley now- you'll find a view of the world that enables you to feel this is the case.
2. Never forget you were once a child.  Children need to be played with, and they require empathy.
3. Potty train as early as possible... Nappies are horrible!
4. "I want doesn't get."  Oh Munchkin, how many times have I said that to you?
5. Be careful what you say to your children and never assume they don't understand.  I can still remember things that my mum said when her first marriage was breaking down.  I would only have been three or four at the time.

You may have gathered that I've taken point 3 to heart.  Potty training is going really well.  Munchkin spent last week on holiday with Sweetpea, who has also just started potty training, and they've been running a toilet relay all week.  I've concluded that we get a 5 minute warning for wees and a 30 second warning for poos.  We took Munchkin swimming without a nappy today.  I assumed it would be fine since her swim nappies have always been empty after lessons.  Thankfully she knows when she needs the toilet, or it could have ended in pool closure.  She pooed in her swimsuit just as we got to the loo.  It will be back to nappies for Friday's lesson.

If I can find the time, I'll blog about our holiday in Devon.  We're off to a birthday party at David Lloyd in Worthing next week, so that might also be worth a mention.

Date Night

Last week's Date Night was much more exciting than anything that's happened this week so I've decided to make it the subject of a blog post.  Angmering  Daddy and I don't go out that often because we're not the type of family with grandparents on the doorstep.  A few months ago, I noticed a bill board advertising a live show by Dave Gorman, one of our favourite comedians.  I looked details up when I got home and found that Dave was doing a series of live shows to test out material for the next season of his TV show, Modern Life is Goodish.  We booked straightaway.  The next challenge would be to find a babysitter.  My lovely step-sister obliged, suggesting that Munchkin joined her five year old daughter for a sleepover.

So Date Night arrived and we took Munchkin over to Lewes to stay with my step-sister.  We set up her Ready Bed in little Flower's room and stayed to play with her and make sure she was settled in.  After about an hour, Munchkin asked us to go home!  It was nice to feel wanted...

Our evening started in Food restaurant in Worthing - somewhere we've wanted to try for ages.  The service was good and the food was superb.  We used the fact that we had time to kill as an excuse for having three courses.  Everything was cooked to perfection.  I had the Calamari, Louisiana Street Food, and Banana Creme Brulee.  AD had Latino Popcorn, Blackened Prawn and Pork Tenderloin, and Cheesecake.  We've been considering going back with Munchkin, but yet again I've been put off by the children's menu.  Why do so many restaurants, even those frequented by "foodies", think that children want chips with everything and assume that the parents are happy with that?

Then we moved on to the main event, Dave Gorman at the Connaught Studio.  I hadn't been to the Studio before so was unaware it was a separate building.  People had to queue outside until the doors opened shortly before the show.  It interesting to learn the Studio used to be The Ritz, which had beem a cinema and a ballroom at different points in the 20th Century.  Dave Gorman was really funny.  The purpose of the live shows is to help him develop scripts.  His audiences have been asked not to post details of the content of these shows online since it would spoil the TV series later in the year, and might make some of the special guests nervous.

It was weird not being woken up by a toddler demanding a cuddle or a cup of milk at 6:30 am the following morning.  Apparently she was well behaved but was too excited to sleep until around 9pm.  Other than decorating her bed with felt-tip and not using the toilet at all, she was the model child.  Since Flower had an inset day, we spent the day in Lewes when I went to pick her up.  She had great fun in the playground at Malling Recreation Ground before we went to lunch at Prezzo, which thankfully had a much better children's menu than some of the independent restaurants I've been to recently.

In potty training news, I still have two Munchkins.  Nursery Munchkin wore pants today and only had one accident.  She then came home, refused to go to the bathroom to get ready for bed, and peed her pants.  I think the next two days at nursery will be fine, but I'm dreading pant wearing on Friday.

Pants!

Munchkin and I have been too grumpy and busy for blogging recently so you've missed out on two epic tantrums and a family trip to Fisher's Farm.  We'll be going back to Fisher's Farm so I'll blog about that another time.  The least said about the tantrums, the better, though I would like to thank the helpful stranger who got us moved to a later swimming lesson when Munchkin's pool tantrum finally ended.

Munchkin is getting closer and closer to being potty trained.  She doesn't like nappies very much and hates pull-ups but my attempt to put her in standard training pants ended in a puddle, partly because they weren't absorbent enough but mainly because they didn't fit snugly around the legs.  There was no way I could put her straight into knickers, since she was doing half her wees and all her poos in nappies.  I still felt cloth training pants were the answer, but I needed to find the right brand.

I didn't have much idea where to look.  Luckily, Laura from Worthing Nappy Library came to my rescue.  She very kindly contacted other nappy libraries to get recommendations for absorbent training pants.  Two American brands, Super Undies and Bumgenius Flip, were recommended.  Super Undies were out of stock everywhere, which was a shame because they were cheaper and more slimline.  I therefore invested in some Bumgenius.  These pants are adjustable so one size fits age 18 months to 4 years.  They have removable inserts which can be changed if the child has only done a wee.  I initially bought three pairs when they were on offer at The Nappy Lady.  The offer price was £21.49, or thereabouts, for a pair of pants and three inserts.  I wish I'd bought more since I've just paid the full price of £27.99 for additional pairs.  I got the additional pairs from Lizzies Real Nappies because they had a better range of designs, in my opinion.  There seems to be a market for second-hand real nappies so I'm hoping to recoup some of my money when she moves on from these pants.

Munchkin's first pants... They've got bunnies on :-)

We had a nappy dry run yesterday.  Munchkin liked her pants, and it almost was a dry run too.  In three hours, she only did one small wee in them.  They're not as easy to get up and down as I'd hoped so we might have to try loosening them.  I did also put them on back-to-front initially, though I'm not sure I should admit to that...  At the weekend, we'll start potty training properly.  Hopefully I've bought my last daytime nappies.  Angmering Daddy has told Munchkin she can have a Peppa Pig medal when she poos on the toilet... I look forward to making it for her.

Pubs and Puddles

Another weekend, another lunch date for Munchkin...  This time we met up with some former work colleagues.  Since our friends are childless, we always have to pick the venue.  They live in Brighton and don't drive so we generally pick them up and go somewhere in the Brighton or Lewes area.  I stumbled upon a site called Child Friendly Brighton & Hove, which is a godsend for finding Munchkin friendly eateries.

We went to The Half Moon in Plumpton.  The food was really good.  Munchkin and I both had sausage and mash.  We promised to leave some for Daddy to try but it was so nice, we scoffed the lot.  The children's menu was £6 for two courses. The children's dessert was anything you like, as long as it was a scoop of ice cream...  The children's facilities were good, but not as good as we were expecting after the write up on Child Friendly Brighton & Hove, for example there were no crayons and paper on offer.  The play area in the huge garden was great.  Munchkin loved the slide and the sand pits.  However, the pub let itself down on service and we wouldn't rush back for this reason.  Strike 1: Our drinks didn't arrive. It turned out that they'd run out of stout. Rather than telling us, they just forgot our whole drinks order.  Strike 2: The wrong menu had been put out and the dish Angmering Daddy wanted wasn't available.  Strike 3: I couldn't find the baby change promised on CFBH.  The waitress told us they didn't have one so I changed Munchkin on the toilet floor.  I later discovered there was a tiny changing table tucked away in one of the toilet cubicles.

Yesterday was a little dramatic.  Munchkin has finally worked out what the toilet is for so I bought her some training pants.  I've gone for the fabric variety since these are meant to promote quicker potty training.  She had a tantrum and refused to get dressed yesterday morning.  I gave her the choice of a nappy, disposable training pants or the new pants.  She settled on the new ones, but the tantrum didn't subside much.  Five minutes later, I found her standing in a puddle.  Thankfully she'd been thoughtful enough to stay on the changing mat.  Note to self: Training pants hold a small wee, not a torrent.  The morning didn't improve much.  She had a friend round to play and spent the first half hour avoiding her and the second half hour screaming.

Munchkin has a busy Easter weekend ahead of her.  She's going to two Easter egg hunts and may be going on a day trip to Butlins in Bognor and/or a trip to see Thomas the Tank Engine.

Sheep Week

It's been a bit sheepish in our household in more ways than one this week.  Munchkin discovered that she could get out of bed and open her door in the middle of the night.  She'd woken up coughing for the second night in a row and decided to take matters into her own hands.  We think the remedy is Sam the Sheep but this is still a work in progress.  Sam is a sleep training clock.  He shuts his eyes at bedtime and Munchkin has been told that she has to stay in bed until Sam opens his eyes.  He is also an alarm clock and a night light.  His screen colour changes depending on whether it's bed time, nearly time to get up or time to get up, and stars also appear on his screen at night.  Sam is more expensive than the market leading sleep trainer, Gro Clock, but he has a number of advantages over Gro Clock.  We think he's more fun and Munchkin can use him long after she would have outgrown a Gro Clock.  Since Sam has analogue and digital time displays, she can learn to tell the time with him and use him as conventional clock in the future.  I bought him from Cheeky Rascals, whom I hadn't heard of before.  This was because they had free next day delivery but I think they're actually the UK importer - I believe Sam is Dutch.

Today we went to Open Lambing at Gaston Farm in Slindon.  We've been before, but this is the first year Munchkin has really appreciated what it's all about.  Gaston Farm is one of two farms local to us that does open lambing.  The other is Coombes Farm, near Lancing College.  We've been to Coombes in the past, but much prefer Gaston Farm.  Coombes has the advantage of starting lambing earlier than Gaston Farm and they used to be cheaper, but looking at their website, I think Coombes have put their prices up whereas Gaston seem to have dropped theirs.  Whenever we've been to Coombes, it's been a mud bath.  Gaston is less muddy and is generally more geared up for visitors.  I first went to Coombes on a school trip in the 1980s and doubt it has changed much since then.

Entry to Gaston Farm cost us £10 (£5 per adult and Munchkin went free).  They have a large, clean barn, decked out with stalls and displays including refreshments, a gift shop and the oportunity to hold ducklings and chicks.  There were plenty of staff and volunteers on hand if we had questions.  As always, the "Grumpy Shepherd" had his name printed on the back of his sweatshirt, as did "The Other Shepherd".  There was no sign of the "Tolerant Wife" this year, perhaps she has become less tolerant?  We were lucky enough to see a lamb being born.  For the first time, we went on the tractor and trailer ride this year.  There was a very professional commentary on the local area, and all for an optional charity donation.  When it comes to lambing, Gaston Farm gets my vote every time.

To blog or not to blog...

Ooh, scary, I've left it so long, I'm not sure how to blog any more!  Life just got in the way.  I left blogging for so long, I wasn't sure if there was any point going back to it.  My Christmas went with a bang, quite literally.  I fell down the stairs, went to A&E in an ambulance and spent Christmas so drugged up, I slept through half of it.

Munchkin's grown up a lot in the last couple of months.  She no longer uses a highchair and we took the sides off her cot this evening... Fingers crossed we don't get a 5am wake up call!  We keep being told that she's a brilliant speaker for her age.  We put this down to Sing and Sign.  Despite my high hopes in the summer, she still isn't potty trained.  She seems to have developed an aversion to the potty recently but has agreed that a Peppa Pig toilet training seat would be lovely.

I'm still unsure how my child (who only ever watched CBEEBIES and Disney) developed an obsession with Peppa Pig.  She watched it a handful of times at cousins' houses and there was a Peppa Pig themed charity event at nursery in the summer.  The next thing I know, she wants to watch Peppa every time the TV's switched on!  I can only assume it sends out subliminal messages to all toddlers...

I've been thinking just recently that becoming a parent has given me a whole new social life.  Admittedly, it's more difficult to go out as a couple now.  But on the plus side, I've made more friends in the past two years than I did for donkey's years pre-baby.  Last night I met up with some mummy friends and friends of friends for a meal at The Lamb in Angmering.  I highly recommend The Lamb.  It was recently converted into a gastro pub and has a busy bar on one side and a decent restaurant the other side.  The only thing I wasn't so keen on, was that I'm always on the lookout for child friendly pub/restaurants for weekend lunches.  I wasn't impressed with the children's menu since everything appeared to be served with chips.  Not one to add to our list of family favourites!

Well I did it, my blog is resurrected!  I've got another defunct blog out there somewhere and it will have to stay defunct for now because I can't remember the password!

Am I a negligent parent?

It seems like ages since I last blogged.  Apart from writing something for Worthing Mums, I haven't blogged for two months.  Firstly we went on holiday (again) then everything got a bit stressy, mainly because someone at work mentioned the "R word" to me (i.e. redundancy) so I'm currently waiting to hear if my job is at risk.  Anyway, I've had a blog rattling around in my head for ages so I'll attempt to get it into words.

Let me start by saying that I truly love my daughter and I'd never allow her to do anything that I considered dangerous, but I don't believe in wrapping children in cotton wool.  I've been in a few situations where other parents or carers have leapt to the assistance of my daughter when she and I have been wondering what all the fuss is about.  The most common place for this seems to be the playground.  A few months ago we were at the playground with some friends when Munchkin wobbled on a step.  I didn't bat an eyelid - though I would have moved very quickly if she'd actually fallen.  In the meantime, my friend had moved to catch her as if her life depended on it.  This started me thinking... should I be more careful?  A similar thing happened very recently.  We were in park with Munchkin's big cousin, and she wanted to follow her onto the climbing frame / slide.  I walked along beside her, checking that she could make it and letting her see that she could grab my hand if she needed to.  As the afternoon progressed, she and I became more confident.  Although I was still following her as she progressed along the walkway, I stood back, knowing that I had time to step forward if she needed me.  The next thing I knew, a grandmother was holding her hand and stroking her arm. Since English wasn't the woman's first language, I was unsure whether she was trying to protect this poor abandoned baby or if  in her culture it's acceptable to stroke other people's children.  At this point I made it clear Munchkin was with me and no more was said.

Similar things have happened at gym club.  Another mother held Munchkin's hand when she was walking over some stepping stones and quickly realised she was too steady on her feet to need assistance.  I think part of the problem is that she's so small people conclude she can only be about a year old and therefore assume she hasn't been walking long.  She'll actually be two in two months' time, has been walking for eleven months and has the vocabularly of a slightly older child.  That's another reason why I give her quite a lot of freedom, I know that her communication is sufficiently good for her to understand if I tell her not to do something because she might get hurt and that she'll ask for help if she feels she needs it.

So am I a negligent parent?  I don't think so, but one or two grannies in the playground might have other ideas.

Pains, Painting and Playing

It's Grumpy Central in our house at the moment.  Munchkin is teething... again.  She seems to have been teething almost continuously for a year.  Munchkin does not teeth well.  The only thing that really seems to help when she's at her worst is paracetamol.  She's been really clingy on and off for about two weeks and has cried doing activities that she'd otherwise enjoy.  The worst thing is that she sometimes vomits with teething, usually after eating/drinking dairy products or banana.

We've tried some summer holiday toddler groups in the past few weeks.  Creation Station was a real hit. Munchkin loves painting and drawing and is always asking to do "rawing" so this was an obvious choice.  We went to a couple of one off summer holiday sessions in East Preston.  Unfortunately we can't attend during term time as sessions clash with our swimming and gymnastics classes.  Creation Station sessions begin with a group activity which includes opening a "magic box".  In the first session, this contained paper in different colours and textures.  In the second session, the box contained a brightly coloured parachute which everyone lifted up and the children hid under.  Munchkin is going through a shy, clingy stage and wouldn't join in with this.  Apparently the holiday groups are much bigger than the term time ones and she'd probably find these less daunting.

Our Creation Station Space Picture

Munchkin really enjoyed the creative part of Creation Station.  The first session was sunshine themed and we made a sunshine stamper which we used to make a print on a piece of fabric; Munchkin also got to paint a picture.  The second session was messy, messy, messy.  It was space themed and we made planet shapes to stick on a black background.  The black background had a star effect, achieved by lots of children flicking paint across a giant piece of paper which we then cut pieces from.  Many of the children, including Munchkin, decided to try their hands at face painting... with poster paint!  The children are given overalls to wear, parents aren't so it's best to wear old clothes.  Holiday sessions are aimed at 1 to 5 year olds and cost £5 a child (with a reduction for siblings).

On the Friday in between the two Creation Station sessions, we went to Boogie Bugs at East Preston Children and Family Centre.  This didn't go so well.  It's basically a group music and movement session.  The whole session is similar to the warm up at Munchkin's gym club.  Sometimes she'll do the warm up and other times she doesn't want to know (the coaches accept that this is par for the course with toddlers).  She was more interested in the babies in car seats at the edge of the room than anything else.  When I tried to get her to join in with the group activity, she screamed.  The group is aimed at age 18 months to 5 years.  Munchkin and her peer group (under 2s) all seemed more interested in other things in the room, chiefly the toys in the corner, than 45 minutes of music and movement.  She started asking to go home before the group had even finished!  I'm not saying it was a bad group, it seemed really popular.  It just wasn't for Munchkin.  On the way home, she told me that she had pain in her mouth.  I never got to give her anything for the pain because she fell asleep.  She awoke half an hour later in so much pain she almost had a fit.  It took what felt like forever, but was probably about 5 minutes to get her to open her mouth for pain relief.  Boogie Bugs only cost £1 a session.  It's next on in East Preston on Friday 30th August and is also held regularly at the Wickbourne Children and Family Centre in Littlehampton.

After my park related whinge in my last blog, a friend recommended the Gull Island playground by Splashpoint.  We went this weekend and I'm pleased to report that it has much more for Munchkin's age group than the playground at the other end of the prom.  She loved playing in the sand and also went on the medium sized slide, the baby slide, the roundabout, rockers and the monkey swing (well that's what I call them because I first saw them at Monkey World!).  The only thing this playground seems to be lacking is swings (it just had the one).  Are swings out of vogue with playground designers?  I can assure them they're not out of vogue with toddlers!  There was a fenced off area where either something had been removed and/or something new was being added.  I'm sure we'll go back, so it'll be interesting to see what's going in that space.  If we go again, we'll take a bucket and spade.

Next weekend, Munchkin's cousin Sweetpea is coming to stay, so we'll be going to Blackberry Farm near Lewes.  There's a blog in my head about parenting advice I've been given and would give to other people, so I need to write that at some point... not yet sure if it's one for here or Worthing Mums.